Page 4407 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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Mr Collaery: Mr Speaker, I withdraw those words. I do not remember saying "bloody", but certainly I withdraw the word.
ACT ELECTRICITY AND WATER AUTHORITY
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (3.03): Mr Speaker, pursuant to section 93(3) of the Audit Act 1989, I table the following paper for the information of members:
Audit Act - ACT Electricity and Water Authority - Report and financial statements, including the Auditor-General's report for 1989-90.
HEALTH SYSTEM
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Berry proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The failure of the Alliance Government to administer the ACT health system effectively.
MR BERRY (3.04): Mr Speaker, this is a serious matter for the ACT community, and it will be a serious matter for the Alliance Government and all its factions. Labor's plan included a strong and viable public health system, which would be accessible to all, but the Liberals' plan has a private hospital focus which forces people into private health insurance, or into over-the-counter high costs for hospital services.
Mr Speaker, there is no need for extra private hospital beds in the ACT. I must go back to something that the Liberal Minister, Mr Humphries, said in relation to this. In responding to a question on the issue he said that the Federal Government had increased by threefold the number of private hospital beds. What Mr Humphries did not say - and I have to say that I think this was put in a way calculated to mislead - was how many of those beds were ultimately occupied. I can say that it is a matter of fact that many of those beds were never opened. There was no demand for those additional private hospital beds in the Australian Capital Territory. There was no demand for them, and the Minister cannot deny that.
The demand, of course, is in the public sector, where, under the Minister's stewardship, there has been an explosion in waiting lists for beds in our hospital system. There has been an explosion. He referred to a press release from a member of the Australian Association of Surgeons, which, of course, said that there would be no
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